Summer brings variety to our personal lives and the life of our churches.

Personally, it is a time for many to take a well-deserved vacation or just slow down from the hectic pace of winter and spring activities.

Summer also is a time of excitement in our churches as staff and members plan for activities such as Vacation Bible School and mission trips for youth and adults. VBS is one of the most evangelistic tools used by our churches to reach the lost for Christ. VBS is a great outreach tool for preschoolers, children, youth and adults. I pray your church has decided to touch the next generation with the gospel of Christ using Vacation Bible School this summer.

California Southern Baptists will have dozens of summer missionaries coming to the Golden State in June from all over the nation. These students will make an everlasting impact while traveling throughout our state working with associations and resort ministries, and ministering in our churches. These missionaries will share Christ with the lost and encourage believers. Lives will be changed because of their ministry. I encourage you to pray for these students whose names are listed on page 11 in this edition of the California Southern Baptist.

I always am thankful for the time I spent as a summer missionary serving with the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) in New York and California. Those three summers were spent witnessing on the streets of New York City, working among migrant farm workers in upstate New York and starting new churches. To this day, I remember the faces of many of those who received Christ. I can think of no greater joyful experience than leading another person to salvation through Jesus Christ.

As these young people join us this summer, may their contagious passion for the lost permeate our relationships. I pray for the day when 100 students from California are ministering in our churches during the summer so every man and woman, boy and girl can hear the gospel and respond.

My bottom-line - and I pray the bottom-line for California Southern Baptists - is reaching people for Christ. Let's not pass up the opportunities the Father has set before us.